Pomona II: Morgan Lucas final summary

LUCAS OIL RACING SPRINTS TO TOP FIVE FINISH IN NHRA POWERADE POINTS
POMONA, Calif. (Nov. 6) -- Morgan Lucas raced to a quarterfinals finish
at the Auto Club NHRA Finals before losing traction, which eventually led
to the Lucas Oil Top Fuel ...

LUCAS OIL RACING SPRINTS TO TOP FIVE FINISH IN NHRA POWERADE POINTS

POMONA, Calif. (Nov. 6) -- Morgan Lucas raced to a quarterfinals finish
at the Auto Club NHRA Finals before losing traction, which eventually led
to the Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster going up in tire smoke to his
opponent, Melanie Troxel, who had an winning elapsed time of 4.535
seconds, 325.92 mph to Lucas' time of 9.342 seconds, 94.89 mph.

In qualifying, Lucas ran a time of 4.503 seconds, 323.74 mph
in capturing the No. 7 position offering him the chance to square off
with Doug Herbert in the opening stanza of Sunday's eliminations. This
drag race gained quite of bit of notoriety due to the opportunity
presented to Lucas in the NHRA POWERade points chase, as the winner would
ascend to the fifth position.

He obtained the spot defeating Herbert in the first round, which was
worth the difference of $5,000 in the standings with a grand total of
$25,000 for finishing fifth in the final 23-race standings from POWERade.

Lucas ran a time of 4.528 seconds, 324.59 mph in defeating
Herbert's 4.553 seconds, 319.60 mph leaving him with a winning margin of
.0216-of a second.

"We're happy about clinching fifth in the standings, but
it's not the way we wanted to end the season," said Lucas. "I love
every one of these crew guys to death. At some point in the future, I
hope that I will get to race with them again because they are great
people. Their hearts are as big as they can get with their loyalty and
devotion to me and they gave me a good and safe race car all year.

"Jimmy (Dupuy, crew chief) and the crew have been amazing.
Whatever happens to them in the future will be all-good because they're
such a talented bunch of people.

"On our run against Melanie, the car did something we
weren't expecting. We were hoping to run in eliminations the same time
as we did in qualifying. For some reason, the track wasn't as good in
that round. With the overcast skies, we thought it would be fine. We
didn't change anything and almost thought we were on the weak side and
we ended up being over aggressive. We went through three different crew
chiefs this year and each one was very good to me and I can't complain
about that."

Morgan moves on to his own team in 2006, sponsored by Lucas
Oil Products, in next years season-opening CarQuest Winternationals at
the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona slated to run on
February 9-12.